MV will be reviewing franchise fee revenue purpose statement
The City of Mount Vernon will be reviewing the franchise fee revenue purpose statement at the next meeting.
City administrator Chris Nosbisch said that the change in language is to allow all categories to be represented in a franchise fee agreement.
Nosbisch said when the revenue purpose statement was passed by the city council in April 2017, the future of the Mount Vernon Police Department’s location was a concern, and that the construction of a new police department could tie up franchise fees for multiple years.
“With the city having a new police department space, I’d like to revisit the revenue purpose statement,” Nosbisch said.
Nosbisch wants to move more of the vehicle expenses from multiple departments out of the general fund into franchise fees instead.
“The general fund is our most difficult fund to manage every year,” Nosbisch said. “Moving equipment purchases out of that fund to another renewable fund each year is a benefit to the community.”
MV tables action on EMS resolution
The City of Mount Vernon also tabled action on a resolution for the establishing of an EMS zone, as there is not enough information on when exactly the official election will be held for the EMS district.
Linn County and Johnson County have two different readings of the way that a special election should be held and the days that count for one, and as that process gets sorted, the district sits in limbo.
“This is the complicated part of working with four different counties on an election like this,” said Jacob Lindauer, director of Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service. “We want to hold one election day for all four counties, not four separate elections. It’s likely not going to happen sooner than June 30.”
MV citizens ask about railroad quiet zone
Citizen Alexander Kurjatko asked if the City of Mount Vernon has established a quiet zone for passing trains.
“We know we live out at Country Club Drive, and we still hear the horns of many passing trains as they go through town,” Kurjatko said. “It’s kind of remarkable the level of noise population for how small the town is.”
Kurjatko said communities like Hiawatha have passed quiet zone ordinances that started in 2019 and completed in 2023.
Kurjatko said with train traffic only expected to increase for commercial usage in Iowa and nationwide, that means the horns will be more frequent.
City administrator Chris Nosbisch said the city did put in a quiet zone at the Springville Road crossing in the past decade, but that was after work from local attorney Guy Booth to get that established that took more than two decades worth of work.
“We are making the ask of the Iowa Department of Transportation with their work along Hwy. 1 if a quiet zone entrance can be installed at that crossing, but we don’t make any guarantees that will be a reality,” Nosbisch said.
Nosbisch said that the quiet zone decreased the sounds of horns for people near the Springville Road crossing, but the Hwy. 1 crossing is not terribly far from that crossing, as well as the crossings in Lisbon that people can hear the trains from.
Other council members noted you do get used to the sound of the passing trains over time. Sherene Player, who lives in the Ash Park neighborhood, said the trains passing through for a while were distracting and woke her up at night, but within a year or two it became background noise.